Maximize your miniature dollar

[CharlesRyan]

Dreamblade has been off the market for a year or so now, so it may be hard to find. But where you do find it, it's probably dirt cheap.

Many Dreamblade minis are completely unsuitable for D&D, but many are great. You'll have to rebase them, however, and that's a pain in the butt. (I have two carrier bags full of Dreamblade minis waiting to be rebased.)

 

[S'mon]

I always get prepainted now.

For quality lead minis prepainted, em4 does 5 for ca £10.99, with 5 free d20s in the box!

For plastic I always get individual WotC Commons/Uncommons, 55-65p a figure is typical. I have paid a lot for some specials, eg:

Gargantuan black dragon £14.99, but a far smaller barely Huge black dragon cost me £9.99, it's not even very well painted, but I wanted it for my game; large & huge black dragons show up a lot.

Hill giant barbarians cost me £1.99 each for 6 (best deal ever!), but I paid £6.99 for a single hill giant chief. On the upside he's nicely painted and I used him twice in my last game, as a flesh golem then as an ogre mage. . Planning to run Steading of the Hill Giant Chief...

I got a frost giant jarl for £7.25.

Overall though I'm mostly buying medium size minis for 55-75p each, getting just the ones I need for my campaign; substituting freely (eg bugbears for ogres as there are no cheap ogres).

If I were in the US or bulk ordering I'd use auggies, I hear they're good but haven't tried them.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Old Glory generally has inexpensive figures.

Old Glory Miniatures 25mm Figures, Fantasy

Old Glory Miniatures Dwarves with Sword, GD-02 six dwarves for $10 bones ain't bad.

Old Glory Miniatures Orc Command, GO-05 Nor six orc command for said same $10 bones.

In addition, it depends on what you want at the table.

Counters and stand ins are very inexpensive.

 

[Dausuul]

Bag o' Zombies!!! - 100 extra plastic undead
Bag o' Glowing Zombies!!! - 100 glow-in-the-dark undead
Bag o' Zombie Dogs!!! - 100 plastic dogs (like in Zombies!!! 4: The End)
Bag o' Zombie Babes!!! - 100 plastic undead females
Bag o' Glowing Zombie Babes!!! - 100 glow-in-the-dark undead females

This makes a very good point; you pay a premium for "official" miniatures. Look for cheapo plastic toys that weren't intended as minis. The "bag o' zombies" Mark found is an excellent example; these are intended for the Zombies board game. They only cost $10 for a bag of 100 because that's as much as you can expect a casual board gamer to shell out for a few extra game tokens. But if you don't mind painting 'em up, or just playing with them as they are, they'll serve perfectly well for a zombie horde in D&D.

I'll bet a diligent search could turn up some others.

For actual "mini" minis, I recommend looking online for hobby/gaming shops that sell secondhand DDM stuff. Don't look for one-off deals on eBay except as a backup; the shipping will kill you. Instead look for places where you can buy in bulk.

I've picked up a ton of minis online at stores like RJ Hobbies. Look for the ones you can get for under a dollar. Those are a good value because they are effectively subsidized by their expensive brethren; the store opens a bunch of booster packs and sells off the rares for $20 a pop, then puts up the commons as an afterthought for $0.39 each. If you don't care about collector value and just want some minis for game night, those commons are a steal. But be sure to order everything at once to economize on shipping. (This, incidentally, is why I love the DDM booster-pack strategy even though a lot of folks hate it. It's called the secondary market, people...)

For bigger, badder minis, I prefer to go with Reaper and paint them myself. Better value than the DDM stuff (if you buy DDM for things like balors, you get stuck with the other end of the collector-value stick), and if you're any good with a brush, they look better too. If you're not good with a brush, or don't want to shell out the up-front cash for paint and brushes and sealant and all that, I think Reaper has some pre-painted stuff available as well.

 

[roguerouge]

I know that this is very old school of me, but you could just put a penny down and imagine what the figure looks like. Cost: 1 cent.

 

[Pbartender]

Check toy soldier types websites...

You've just got to make sure you're look for 1:72 scale figures (25-30mm). Many of them are more like 1:32 (50-60mm). Although the 1:32 and larger figures are worth looking through for larger giants, monsters, dragons, etc...

Like this Huge 3" tall Harryhausen Ymir Figurine for $3.50.


Caesar Minis are great for 25-30mm figures, especially fantasy types... (Minis pictured have been painted by customers.) They come in packs of 30-40 unpainted plastic minis for about $7.50 to $10.00 a pack.

You can find their fantansy line of minis for sale here in the US... Adventurers, Elves, Dwarves, Undead, Goblins and Orcs.

 

[Mark]

I know that this is very old school of me, but you could just put a penny down and imagine what the figure looks like. Cost: 1 cent.

For how many?


Also, as said before, Mega Miniatures

Mega Miniatures has some packs of minis that give good quantity for a low price as long as you don't mind painting. You might want to grab their pdf catalog pages to use as a painting guide, too.

 

[Badwe]

I know that this is very old school of me, but you could just put a penny down and imagine what the figure looks like. Cost: 1 cent.

Haha, very clever I actually do use pennies or glass beads to represent minions. However, since my roommate bought a copy of zombies!!!, I may start using those as minions.

 

[Pbartender]

I know that this is very old school of me, but you could just put a penny down and imagine what the figure looks like. Cost: 1 cent.

Dollar store chess (and checker) sets work great for counters... 32 pieces in 6 different shapes and two colors for $1.

 

[Xyxox]

Haha, very clever I actually do use pennies or glass beads to represent minions. However, since my roommate bought a copy of zombies!!!, I may start using those as minions.

You could always use cheetos, but the monsters tend to get eaten.